Without Josh Morrissey, the Winnipeg Jets had a void in their lineup against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Anaheim handed the Jets their first regulation loss of the season in the 5-1 contest. Winnipeg\u2019s power play that was red hot to start the season was an ice-cold 0-for-4, and it emphasized just how much the Jets missed Josh Morrissey in the game.<\/p>\n
The Jets started with a ton of energy and speed, but Anaheim maintained their pace over the full game and capitalized on Winnipeg\u2019s mistakes.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg didn\u2019t get burned just once in the transition game; they were burned three times by Anaheim\u2019s fourth line.<\/p>\n
Former Manitoba Moose Jeff Malott notched two assists to help the Ducks secure the win.<\/p>\n
Malott helped Judd Caulfield with his first NHL goal, and even helped retrieve the puck for Caulfield.<\/p>\n
It must\u2019ve been bittersweet for the now 30-year-old Malott, a player who\u2019s extremely familiar with Canada Life Centre.<\/p>\n
Malott\u2019s linemates, Caulfield and Tim Washe, each had a goal and an assist. It\u2019s not every game a team gets that amount of production from its fourth line, but Anaheim found a way to utilize their speed to torch the Jets\u2019 defenders.<\/p>\n
\u201c(They) had a special night. They scored a couple off the rush, almost had a third one off the rush, had a couple shifts in the third with good possession and cycle time,\u201d Joel Quenneville said about his fourth line. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t ask for anything more. That was a special night for those guys,\u201d Quenneville added.<\/p>\n
Judd Caulfield\u2019s first NHL goal opened the scoring at 14:41 in the first period. Malott\u2019s almost breakaway was jammed in by Caulfield, who flew into the net alongside the puck.<\/p>\n
Caulfield spoke about how great it felt to get his first NHL goal, and added that his linemates helped give him that opportunity to score.<\/p>\n
The Grand Forks, North Dakota-born NHL player had family drive just north of the border to watch him play his fourth career NHL game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was super special with the family here,\u201d Caulfield said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was as close as we\u2019re going to get, and it was (good) to have a nice little lineup on the schedule to have a Friday night game. It was super special to have them in the stands. I don\u2019t think my grandma\u2019s been to a game in a while, and it was nice to have my parents and my wife\u2019s family here as well, and my siblings. It was great to have that support. They have supported me for so many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caulfield had around 10 family members in attendance to watch his first multi-point NHL game.<\/p>\n
Washe added to Anaheim\u2019s lead at 5:20 in the second period, driving play and creating a 2-on-1 rush with Malott after Caulfield\u2019s pass got through the neutral zone.<\/p>\n
Similar to the second period, Sam Colangelo added to Anaheim\u2019s lead early in the third frame after he knocked in Beckett Sennecke\u2019s pass that found him near the crease.<\/p>\n
When it seemed like Winnipeg was out of the game, Kyle Connor scored his sixth goal of the season to make it a 3-1 game with 10:36 left.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a lot of chances there in the second to change momentum, and unfortunately we weren\u2019t able to get one,\u201d Connor said about the game Anaheim played against the Jets.<\/p>\n
Mikael Granlund scored at 14:06 to make it 4-1, and with the net empty, Nikita Nesterenko made it 5-1with 41 seconds left to play, and many fans at Canada Life Centre headed for the exits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t getting inside,\u201d Arniel said about his team\u2019s complete game performance.<\/p>\n
This led to a more tense game for Winnipeg, and as Anaheim kept scoring, Winnipeg continued to feel the pressure.<\/p>\n
Arniel said at one point that it felt like the Jets were scrambling after Anaheim\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we did a really good job of getting pucks to the goal line and then going from there. In the second period, we didn\u2019t do that quite as well. So, just some mental things that happened. Obviously, some physical things as well. Not an excuse; everybody does it, but the five (games) in eight (days), there were some things there mentally that you could see kind of caught up for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anaheim accomplished exactly what it set out to do against Winnipeg: bounce back after a loss to the Edmonton Oilers and hand the Jets their first regulation defeat of the season.<\/p>\n
For Winnipeg, the loss offers a reminder of how quickly things can unravel when mistakes in transition meet an opponent capable of making them pay. The Ducks\u2019 fourth line set the tone, while the Jets\u2019 power play failed to provide the response it had delivered earlier in the season.<\/p>\n
Head coach Scott Arniel pointed to the demanding schedule as a possible factor, with Winnipeg having played five games in eight days.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot an excuse; everybody does it, but the five (games) in eight (days), there were some things there mentally that you could see kind of caught up for us,\u201d Arniel said.<\/p>\n
The Jets now have an opportunity to regroup. With no game until Tuesday\u2019s matchup against the Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg will have several days to rest, reset, and address the mistakes that proved costly against Anaheim.<\/p>\n
The loss doesn\u2019t erase the strong start Winnipeg put together, but it does give the team plenty to work on before its next test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Without Josh Morrissey, the Winnipeg Jets had a void in their lineup against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,1720,191285,401,21258,52840,187314,30509,5498,404,70400,17083,2103,2721,1707],"class_list":["post-491335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-beckett-sennecke","tag-clay-stevenson","tag-hockey","tag-jeff-malott","tag-josh-morrissey","tag-judd-caulfield","tag-kyle-connor","tag-lukas-dostal","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-game-recap","tag-nikita-nesterenko","tag-sam-colangelo","tag-tim-washe","tag-winnipeg-jets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}